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Saucon Valley board, teachers to meet ahead of strike deadline

Saucon Valley school arrival

Students leave Saucon Valley Middle School in this 2009 file photo. The teachers' union's attorney says a teacher strike is an option as the union continues to negotiate a new contract with the Saucon Valley School Board.
(Express-Times File Photo)

District solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik said the school board will meet with the union Sunday at the request of union chief negotiator Rick Simononis. But that doesn't mean the school board has accepted the union's latest offer, he said.

"The difficulty we face now is that the union has made a final proposal that is patently unacceptable to the board," Sultanik said. "Unless the union decides that it is willing to negotiate its final proposal, negotiations cannot go anywhere."

The Saucon Valley Education Association's final proposal asks for raises of 6.6 percent in 2012-13, 6.1 percent in 2013-14 and 6.2 percent in 2014-15, according to Sultanik.

Union attorney Andrew Muir argues the raises represent a 3 percent "on scale" increase and that it fits between the salary parameters of the fact-finder's report that the board accepted. School director Ralph Puerta has pointed out on scale refers to a 3 percent cost-of-living increase to the salary schedule that ignores raises for longevity and educational attainment.

Muir did not respond to an email or phone message today seeking an update on the union's plans.

Calling the teachers' proposal a take-it-or-leave-it contract makes any kind of "intelligent bargaining next to impossible," Sultanik said.

"It is clear to the board that the union is engaging in a high stakes game that is gambling the education of the students in the district," Sultanik said. "The union's attorney is desperately trying to portray the union as making a rational proposal, when the proposal is completely out of line with any settlement in the region."

Muir argues teachers have shown their final offer does not require a tax hike and it is likely that the district's savings account will still have more than $10 million in it once the contract ends next July. The school board has been socking away money to mitigate upcoming spikes in pension contribution rates.

"The school board's wild financial projections were designed to create the image of a financial crisis and were intended to tweak the emotions of the Hellertown residents," Muir said in a statement Thursday. "The school board's efforts are little more than reckless attempts to mislead the community (part of the larger community) so that the teachers would receive diminished support. That plan will eventually backfire."

Muir predicts ongoing contentious relations between teachers and the board will cause housing values to drop.